


Seaglass

by 27dragons



Series: Nights in Sandbridge [21]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Parent Tony Stark, doctoral defense, featuring tony and loki's weird friendship, so we apologize for the inaccuracies, the authors have only the vaguest notion how that works
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-11 23:27:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28750677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/27dragons/pseuds/27dragons
Summary: Co-written by tisfan. This note will be removed when tisfan is able to accept the co-authorship. See end note for more information.When Tony first arrived in Sandbridge, he was friendless and broke, with only two years of college completed, having dropped out to run away. Now he has a family and fortune and friends, and his schooling is about to reach its pinnacle.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Series: Nights in Sandbridge [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/700245
Comments: 83
Kudos: 217





	Seaglass

Tony gave up trying to sleep when the first pinkish glow seeped in through the cracks in the curtains. He slid carefully out from under Bucky’s arm and went into the bathroom to splash water on his face.

A cascade of numbers fell behind his eyes and formed themselves into equations before swirling gently down the drain.

He was going to fall flat on his face, he was sure of it.

Tony closed his eyes and leaned on the counter and wished he’d been able to get any sleep. But short of drugging himself into a stupor, that probably was not going to have been possible. He pulled on a t-shirt and glanced at Bucky to make sure his husband was still sleeping, and then crept out of the bedroom. Might as well start breakfast as long as he was up.

He could swear, though, both Muffin and Olivia had some sort of super power. Muffin was prowling around the food dish as soon as Tony clicked on the light, and a crinkle of plastic alerted the grade-schooler to the possibility of a bowl of cereal. 

She came in, dragging her favorite stuffed animal, a narwhal they’d gotten at the aquarium, and wearing a hoodie over her pyjamas. Sometimes Tony wondered if he was ever going to see his daughter without the requisite hoodie again.

“Dad?”

“You’re up early, ladybug. You want some milk?”

“Coffee?” 

Both his daughters were consistent with their ability to pry caffeine out of adults who should know better. Wanda had started giving the girls cups of essentially melted coffee ice cream before Liv was even in kindergarten.

“What?” she’d demanded when Tony had objected. “I want someone shorter than me around here.”

“You may have coffee when you are taller than Auntie Wanda,” Tony promised. “For now, milk or juice?”

“Juice,” she said, dragging herself onto one of the kitchen stools and putting the narwhal on the stool next to her. “And Nathan will have coffee.”

“Oh he will, will he?” Tony got out the juice pitcher and poured a cup for her. “He’ll have to wait until I’ve had mine. I need it more.”

“Did Papa kick you out of bed?” She took a few sips of her juice. “Were you _snoring_?”

“Where on earth did you hear _that?_ ” Tony wondered. “No, I just couldn’t sleep anymore--” Or at all, but he didn’t want Liv realizing that was possible. “--so I got up.”

“Aunt Wanda kicked Uncle Sam out of bed because he was snoring. She made him sleep on the sofa for a _week_ when he was sick,” Liv reported. “Can I haz sum toast, plz?” She said it just like she was reading one of those annoying cat memes.

“Yes, you may have toast.” Tony reached for the bread. “What do you want on it?”

“Cimminim?” Liv swirled the dregs of her juice around like she was at a bar trying to decide if she wanted another cocktail. “Is today your ‘Fencement thing?”

“Yes,” Tony said, reaching up into the cabinet for the cinnamon-sugar shaker. “Today is my thesis defense. You going to be good while I’m at school?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “My badness levels are unusually high for someone my size.”

Tony sputtered out a laugh and leaned over to kiss the top of her head. “I feel confident that you can overcome your baser nature,” he told her.

“Coffee would help,” she pointed out, but didn’t pout when he lifted an eyebrow at her. “Worth a try. Want to go for a walk? It’s nice at the beach in the morning. No people.”

Liv’s obsession with the beach was probably healthier than her obsession with coffee. “Sure,” he agreed, setting a plate in front of her. “Eat first, and then we’ll go for a walk.” He poured himself a second cup of coffee and leaned against the counter, automatically calculating tensile strength and load bearing capabilities as Liv leaned back on the stool, trying to mentally rehearse his explanation for his data run.

Billie had always liked her toast cut diagonally. Liv, on the other hand, wanted her toast cut into three strips, and she’d eat them carefully, one at a time. “It’s nice,” she said, finally, licking her finger to sweep up the last of the crumbs of sugar and cinnamon off her plate.

“The toast?”

“I like when it’s jus’ us,” she said, seriously. “When you are all mine.”

Tony already knew he was a sucker for his daughter, but that just made him feel like a gooey puddle of warm feelings. He pulled her in for a hug. “Love you too, bug.”

“Of course you do,” she said, preening. “ _I’m amazing_.”

* * *

There were just questions Bucky learned not to ask. They were all hard won lessons, usually managed with bouts of anxiety, manly tears and lots and lots of apologies.

He didn’t ask Nat (or Steve) when they were planning to have children.

He didn’t ask Billie literally anything about school. Her junior year of high school had been such a roller coaster that “How was school” had been a guarantee of either having his ears peeled off or having her burst into tears, slam the door behind her and tell him to go away.

And generally speaking, asking Tony “So, it went okay, right?” was a mistake.

And… of course, because he couldn’t think of anything else--

“Did it go well?” was the first thing out of his mouth when Tony’s car pulled into the lot and he slipped in through the employee entrance.

“I completely forgot to do the materials presentation before I went to the construction panel,” Tony said, shoving a hand through his hair and making it all stand on end. “And the first, the _very first_ question they asked was the one I was worried about, because I didn’t think to check the oxidation rate on the joints before I ran the maintenance projections, and my own thesis advisor turned on me and wanted me to talk about the cost-benefit analysis!” He leaned against the wall with a huge sigh. “It was a _nightmare_.”

“I almost understood that,” Bucky said. “And I’m positive you said something about oxidation rates when you started the project, so maybe you’ll have to do a revision, but I think you already accounted for it.”

Tony hummed. “Maybe. Dr. Kincaid wants to talk about some possible applications in his next grant proposal, so we’ll at least have to go over everything with that particular case in mind anyway, but _god,_ I’m glad it’s over. They said I should find out in about a week.”

“I’m sure you did fine,” Bucky said, because he _was_. Tony was so smart it was terrifying. Bucky had no doubts in Tony’s ability to earn the degree he was seeking, to get his doctorate. He wasn’t always sure that Tony realized he was as smart and capable as he was. Bucky’d read a paper about it once; the better someone actually was at a thing, the less they felt they were good at a thing. That stupid or unskilled people were just too incompetant to even notice their own lack of ability.

Bucky’s mouth tipped up in a half smile. “You want to go have a celebratory ice cream? Vic’s got the floor tonight.”

Tony glanced up at him and reached out, pulling Bucky in against him. “Yes,” he decided. “I absolutely want to have ice cream. And celebrate being _done_.”

Normally the Baskin-Robbins was crowded with tourists during the summer season, sometimes even out the door. But today, there was a paper sign on the front door.

_Closed for Private Party_

“What...” Tony gave Bucky a wide-eyed look, even as Bucky pushed the door open.

Unlike the Ben & Jerry’s up in Williamsburg, Baskin-Robbins didn’t have giant ice cream offerings, but Nat had managed, between tossing large amounts of cash at the manager, and in providing several comically oversized margarita glasses, to get something close.

Tony was presented with an ice cream sundae with enough scoops in it for more than four people, but somewhat less than would satisfy ten. Bucky wondered if Nat would manage to eat one all by herself.

“ _Surprise!”_

“Oh my god.” Tony covered his mouth with both hands as he stared around the ice cream shop, at the friends who had gathered to celebrate with them. “Oh my _god_. You...” He reached out and pulled Nat into a hug, without letting go of Bucky’s hand. When he looked back at Bucky, his eyes were watery and his smile filled his face. “You.”

“It is a milestone,” Nat said, seriously. She’d done her defense two weeks ago, and was still waiting on the results. They hadn’t gone to the same university, or studied any of the same sort of things, but both of them were chasing a degree that they’d been cheated out of by circumstances beyond their control.

They’d studied together, practiced their defenses on each other, and mostly not committed murder in pursuit of higher education together.

Tony hugged Nat again, and then turned to Bucky again and pulled Bucky down for a fierce kiss. “I could not, _could not_ , have done it without you,” he said, utterly serious. “I’d never even have finished my bachelor’s. This is your celebration as much as it is mine.”

His therapist would be proud, Bucky decided. He didn’t even argue with Tony, didn’t protest that he hadn’t done a thing. Because he knew he _had_. He’d been there, supported Tony, and then _supported_ him. Encouraged him to get the degree, hired extra employees to take up Tony’s responsibilities. And it was all right, perfectly acceptable, to let himself take credit for what they’d accomplished together. “I know,” he said. “We make a good team.”

“We do,” Tony agreed, and opened his mouth to say something else when Liv pried her hand free of Steve’s and raced full-tilt into Tony’s legs, nearly knocking him over.

“It’s a spize!” she announced. “Are you spized, Dad?”

Billie, of course, was mostly too cool and too old for enthusiastic displays of affection. But she wandered over, pulling her best imitation-cat maneuver that said very clearly I was going this way anyway. “I don’t know why you wanted to do _more school_ after having escaped from it, but congrats, I guess.”

“Thanks, buttercup,” Tony said, laughing. He reached out like he was going to try to hug her, but then restrained himself and patted her on the arm instead. He grinned down at Liv, practically vibrating with excitement. “Yes, you may have your ice cream now,” he said, and smirked when both girls practically teleported to booths on opposite sides of the ice cream parlor to dig into their own waiting creations.

The door opened behind them, and Loki slipped in behind them. 

“Oh, look, honey,” Bucky said. “Your _friend_ is here.”

Tony glared at him, though there wasn’t much heat in it.

“I am here because it is Friday,” Loki said. He didn’t roll his eyes, because Loki rarely engaged in active scoffing. But he sounded like he wanted to roll his eyes anyway. “And my offspring asked to be picked up at the ice cream shop instead.”

“Well, stick around and have some ice cream, if you want,” Tony said diffidently. “They’ve apparently bought out half the stock. Nat will have made off with all the coffee crunch, but there’s at least thirty-two other flavors to choose from.” He took a bite from his own enormous sundae, which was starting to melt.

Billie waved her spoon around; even as a teenager, who had had several years worth of practice eating food, she’d still managed to get a smear of chocolate on her chin. “Father’s favorite is Gold Medal Chocolate. You know, the stuff with the raspberry swirl in it?”

Loki still didn’t roll his eyes, but he looked vaguely ashamed of having been outed as liking ice cream enough to have a favorite flavor. Bucky didn’t particularly like the man, but he understood sometimes why his sister had liked him. Loki had all sorts of notions about adulthood and being a grown-up. The man enjoyed talking about life insurance for god’s sake. It wasn’t just that he had to be an adult. He had to be the adultiest adult in the room.

That image was spoiled by the arrival of a double cone of frozen chocolatey goodness. For half a second, Bucky thought Loki would just throw it out to maintain his aura of maturity, but he sighed, licked the cone, and went over to hover just behind his daughter. If he could have put up police tape that said “I am not part of this group” he probably would have.

Tony was immediately pulled aside by Nat, who wanted to know all the details of his defense. Steve threaded the narrow path through the tables to clap a hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “Who’d have thought, huh?”

“It’s pretty amazing,” Bucky agreed. He poked his spoon around in the giant glass, trying to find something that wasn’t fruit flavored in there. “I don’t know how we ended up married to the two smartest people in Sandbridge. Must be because we’re so pretty.”

Steve shook his head, watching Tony and Nat talking excitedly, both of them waving their hands. “Yeah, but that doesn’t explain how we ended up with the two most _beautiful_ people in Sandbridge. We must’ve done something really great in a previous life.”

“You punched Hitler in the face a lot,” Bucky said. “I already decided that. I had like, deja vu dreams about it and everything.”

“Well, I have to agree that would deserve some kind of reward,” Steve agreed. He reached over and stole a spoonful of strawberry ice cream from Bucky’s glass. 

Tony’s phone -- which he’d taken out of his pocket to show someone a picture and then left on the other table -- started ringing.

Tony, who had Liv in his lap and was attempting to annoy Loki into trying some other flavors, glanced up.

“I’ll get it for you,” Bucky said. He thumbed the phone over to _accept call_.

A moment later, he put his hand over the speaker, raising his voice. “They’d like to speak to Dr. Stark.”

Tony rolled his eyes and nudged Liv off his lap. “I haven’t even passed yet, and the junk calls are starting?” He reached out for the phone. “Stark speaking, what--”

He froze, his eyes widening. He pulled the phone back and looked down at the display, then put it back to his ear. “Dr. Rice?”

Dr. Rice was Tony’s advisor.

“No, I’m just with some friends, it’s... Really? She did? But what about... Oh. Huh. I, yeah, I’m just... Yeah, that. Okay. Right, I’ll keep an eye out for that email, then. Thank you, Dr. Rice.” He thumbed the phone off and stared at it for a long moment.

Bucky waited for a moment, then, “ _Well_?”

Tony looked up at him, eyes round. “I did it,” he whispered. “I passed. I’m a doctor.”

Bucky leaned over and kissed his husband’s cheek. “Never doubted it for a second, sweetheart.”

Tony stared in shock for a minute longer, then let out a loud whoop. “I did it!”

“Yes, yes you did,” Bucky told him, drawing Tony into a hug. In a few minutes, he’d let his husband go, let him go back to celebrating and ice cream and congratulations from all their friends. 

But for right now, Tony was his, and the whole world could go to hell. “You did _amazing_ , baby.”

**Author's Note:**

> Unfortunately, tisfan suffered a major medical misadventure in late September and, as of this posting, is in a long-term physical therapy facility and unable to read or type (and therefore is unable to log in and accept co-authorship). She is expected to return eventually, but so far the doctors aren't able to estimate a time frame for that (probably months or even longer). Anyone who would like to leave a note for tisfan can add it to the bottom of [this document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EdkWsokcaUSnQ7i9proJiuzR30L-WVHgGx4pwKj6GH0/edit?usp=sharing) \- new messages are periodically given to Mr. Tisfan to read to her (and the whole thing is being saved for her when she's able to get back online again).
> 
> And as I've already explained at the ends of _Djinn_ and _Comtehawk_ , this is the last of the stories that tisfan and I wrote together that are complete enough to post. So until she's able to get back online and start writing again, our regular Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday posts are on hiatus. We've enjoyed every moment of sharing our worlds with you all, and we hope you'll stay subscribed so you know when we're able to resume.
> 
> The world is crazy right now. Stay safe and stay strong. Much love to all of you.


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